UK Court Forces Barclays to Reveal Staff on Libor List

A British judge forced Barclays
to identify top executives alongside traders linked to
a probe into rate fixing, naming ex CEOs Bob Diamond and John
Varley and current Finance Director Chris Lucas on Thursday
despite requests for anonymity.

LONDON, Jan 24 A British judge forced Barclays
to identify top executives alongside traders linked to
a probe into rate fixing, naming ex CEOs Bob Diamond and John
Varley and current Finance Director Chris Lucas on Thursday
despite requests for anonymity.

The names were unveiled in a preliminary hearing for a case
brought against Barclays by a residential care home operator
which alleges it was mis-sold interest rate hedging products,
which were based on Libor rates.

Barclays was the first bank to be punished over the Libor
scandal, in which global lenders colluded to manipulate
benchmark interest rates. It agreed to a fine of $453 million
from U.S. and UK authorities and its then chief executive Bob
Diamond left the bank following the controversy.

In the first British claim for damages, Guardian Care Homes
is suing Barclays for 37 million pounds. It is seen as a test
case for interest rate swaps misselling, and is also set to
shine a light on people involved in the bank's manipulation of
Libor and how the rate setting process was conducted.

Britain's High Court denied requests by 104 former and
current Barclays staff for anonymity. The list of names includes
24 individuals who have been named in regulatory documents
referring to Barclays' attempted Libor rigging. That sub list
was not immediately available.

The remaining people are employees whose email accounts were
disclosed to the regulatory authorities, but it is not suggested
in the regulatory findings that they were implicated in the
fixing scandal.

Those named include Rich Ricci, head of Barclays' investment
bank.

"There is a legitimate public interest in the true picture
in relation to the manipulation of Libor by banks generally, not
just Barclays, being brought fully to light," the judge said in
his ruling.

"In my judgment, fair and accurate media reporting of all
aspects of Libor manipulation, including the involvement of
employees and ex-employees of Barclays and their identity, is an
important aspect of the public obtaining that true picture."

Others named on Thursday include Ryan Reich, a 30-year-old
former Barclays swaps trader based in New York who was fired in
2010.

U.S. prosecutors are investigating Reich's activities while
at Barclays between August 2006 and March 2010, according to
several people familiar with the situation.

Ritankar "Ronti" Pal, who oversaw desk trading since 2006,
was also on the list. He recently left Barclays.

Other names included Eric Bommensath, a French bond trader
who became global head of fixed income and a member of the
bank's executive committee, and Harry Harrison, a British banker
in charge of dollar-denominated fixed-income trading in New
York.

Libor is used as a benchmark for pricing trillions of
dollars of loans and other financial contracts and banks
implicated face a rising tide of civil lawsuits from customers
who argue the rate-rigging pushed up the cost of their loans.

Switzerland's UBS agreed in December to pay fines
of $1.5 billion and a slew of other banks, including Royal Bank
of Scotland are also expected to reach settlements.

Barclays has said it has fired five employees following an
internal investigation into how its Libor rates were submitted
and disciplined another eight people. Many people identified in
that investigation have also left the bank, it told lawmakers in
November.

"This started as an alleged misselling case which the bank
considers has no merit," Barclays said in a brief statement on
Thursday. "The addition of a claim based on what happened with
Libor does not change the bank's view.

"The fact that someone's documents were reviewed by the bank
during its review of millions of documents does not mean that
such person was involved in any wrongdoing."